Carr: “Is Google Making Us Stupid”
Atlantic article here
The following outline includes an introduction (which signals other uses of rhetoric) and questions (for you to think about).
Communication Time-Line
The following time-line highlights key moments in the history of human communication technology. What would you add to this chart? What did Carr include and what did he leave out? Why? In the Evaluation section, you’ll want to come back to a time-line such as this, in order to ask whether or not his references to history are accurate, balanced, convincing, effective, etc. In both rhetorical and evaluative analysis you’ll ask, What other references could he have used?, yet you’ll push the answer to this question in different directions. In rhetorical analysis, you’ll use the answer to analyze how Carr’s use of historical reference fits in with his other uses of time (for example, his use of a cyclical structure, starting and ending his article with 2001), and with his use of metaphors, popular media, logical arguments (logos), authority figures (ethos), etc. In evaluation, you’ll question the validity and the efficacy of his historical references, creating your own historical context which will either support or challenge the one he uses. In evaluation you’ll explore other possible historical references — and the contexts which these suggest — in much greater detail.
In the following table, the colour red is used to mark three segments of a larger time-line: 🍎1. pre-history to Neolithic, 🍎2. Ancient to Medieval, and 🍎3. Early Modern to present.
Student Responses: 16 Strategies, Carr, & McLuhan
3a: 16 Strategies & Carr ❧ Pick any one of the categories in 16 Strategies and explain how Carr uses it in his argument. ❧ Take one metaphor and show how it’s central to the point Carr is making. ❧ How do the metaphors Carr uses affect his readers? ❧ Answer any of the questions in red below.
3b: Carr & McLuhan ❧ Where and why does Carr make implicit use of McLuhan’s theory (that the media has a greater impact than the message)? ❧ Show how at least two of Carr’s historical references contribute to his point. ❧ Take one of Carr’s metaphors or historical references and apply it in a different context so as to make a similar, slightly different, or completely new point about the Internet. This response can be straight-forward or creative (for instance, you might have a scuba-diver or Nietzsche comment on Carr’s view of communication technology).
3c: Carr & Metaphor ❧ Take a metaphor used by Carr (jet-skier, brain as computer, shallows, depths, cathedral, etc.) and come up with a similar metaphor and a scenario which makes a point about how you (or other people) are effected by the Internet. Make sure not to use the exact same metaphor Carr uses. For instance, where Carr uses a cathedral, you might use a Greek temple, a gurdwara, a mosque, a synagogue, Yankee Stadium, the British Museum, or the downtown Vancouver library. You can use your own experience, create a fictional scenario, or give an explanation. For analysis of metaphors and conceits, see the Week 1 video “Metaphor” (on the Friend’s dialogue) and the Week 2 work on Twain and Gore. Also look at the previous responses.
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